There was some Department of Transportation activity at the Purnell Road bridge over Horse Creek this week, but it was not a precursor of the scheduled bridge replacement.
Instead that replacement, once scheduled to begin this November, has now been changed to be done from July through November in 2015.
Similarly, the schedule for the replacement of the Oak Avenue bridge over Richland Creek has been shifted from November of 2015 through March of 2016 and will now be January of 2015 through July 2016. Thirty completion days have been added to the contract, growing from 120 to 150 days.
On the other hand, the contract for the replacement of the Forestville Road bridge over Sanford Creek has shrunk from 135 to 120 days. That work is now slated to be done from April through August next year.
The bridge replacement on Rogers Road where it crosses Smith Creek is still scheduled to take 135 days from March through August in 2016, but the road may remain closed longer because the contract now includes the widening of Rogers from the intersection of South Franklin Street west of the bridge to the Heritage Lake Road/Forestville Road intersection east of the bridge.
All the replacements are part of a $9.2-million eight bridge design/build contract DOT let last year to Blythe Construction. All eight bridges are in Wake County.
The bridge replacements on Forestville and Rogers Roads will pose problems not just for residents but also for the three Heritage schools next to the bridges. School, town and state officials have all pledged to make the construction detours and other necessary adjustments as painless as possible.
Last spring, Senior Planner Candace Davis said widening Rogers Road from the bridge to Forestville Road has been on the town’s transportation plan for years and the state Department of Transportation planned to do the widening in the next 10 to 15 years.
“Why not have the widening now?” Davis said the town staff asked and they approached DOT about combining the two projects, cutting costs and reducing the total time the road will be closed.
The Rogers Road bridge project will include a wider five-lane approach from the west side, five full lanes across the bridge, five lanes from the bridge to Forestville Road, and a pedestrian underpass for the Smith Creek Greenway.
Davis said the project will still take five months with monetary penalties to the contractor for any time past the contract time. There will be marked detours and adequate provision for traffic into the two schools next to the bridge, Heritage Elementary and Heritage Middle School, and for Heritage High School on Forestville Road.
“NCDOT made the decision to close Rogers Road completely (instead of building the bridge in stages over 12 months) after consulting with the principals of the three public schools in the area and the Wake County School System bus coordinator,” the town’s website says.
The town has an interactive map on its website with useful information about current and scheduled transportation projects in the area. The map highlights projects that have active construction sites, are in the process of being designed or permitted, and/or are currently funded for future design/construction. To view the interactive map, visit www.wakeforestnc.gov/transportationmap.aspx.
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Construction of a short 500-foot section of Grandmark Avenue will resolve a very big problem for 3Phoenix and other companies and shops along dead-end Capcom Avenue. It will allow the people who work, shop and worship on the street – Heritage Baptist Church is one of several there – to get to Rogers Road instead of all having to try to turn left or right onto busier South Main Street.
The street was to have been built years ago, but changes in plans and the economy stymied those efforts.
Recently the town received a DOT grant of $110,000 toward the $185,000 total to build the street section. There is some money left in the town fund for unpaved roads and an adjoining land owner will contribute $25,000 to make up the total.
